Month: December 2011

In all that we are sharing about the Prophetic Timetable, it is important to remember that God has not revealed this simply so that we can be fascinated as we look into it and see what He is doing: He has revealed it so that we can be prepared to play our part. There is a place of authority that God has always intended us to occupy, in which the authority of God is expressed through our lives as we bring heaven to earth. All the earthly systems are about to be shaken and all the world will turn to the church for the answers: we need to be ready.

I have mentioned before that I believe that the first harvest of labourers, the harvest of harvesters, will amount to 20% of the population. Worldwide, that would be over a billion people. If that scale is too hard to imagine, let’s look closer to home: the population of Barnstaple and the surrounding villages is around 48000 according to the latest figures I could find, probably closer to 50000 by now. 20% of that is 10000 individuals. What would it take for the local church in our relatively small market town to handle an influx of 10000 people right now (I don’t mean just Freedom Church, but all the churches across the area)?

There are 20 churches who are part of the Barnstaple Churches Together network, and only a handful of them have congregations over 100 at the moment. Could each church take 500 people, disciple them and equip them to go out and reach the rest of the population? What if there were only 10 churches who were prepared for that? That would be 1000 each. No wonder we are thinking we need a bigger building! The biggest auditorium in North Devon is probably the Queen’s Theatre, which holds 600. Possibly if you used our local Leisure Centre you could squeeze in a few more. Even in a town like Barnstaple you would have 10 churches needing 10 places that size or bigger.

And if only 3 churches were ready… in that case, we are going to need the whole site we have been believing for. That is why some of us have been making those declarations and prayer-walking and staking out the boundary God has shown us. If you look on a map, or this aerial view, it is shaped like a footprint, with our present building at the ‘big toe’ (centre right, marked with our butterfly logo). That is very fitting, because God told Joshua that he would possess everywhere he set his foot. And just as God really intended Israel to take the blessing to the whole world, that footprint is not the limit of our inheritance or our influence – it is just the base from which we would look to reach out to transform our whole community (however wide that is).

So what if people came from further afield? In the revival here in 2012 we saw folk coming from the south of the county, from Torquay, from Cornwall and Somerset. If we are to be a regional apostolic centre, how big is the region? How big is our vision? As I update this post in mid-2015, we are connecting with thousands of people around the globe through our ‘Engaging God‘ programme, blog, websites, social media and YouTube channel. Wherever you are reading this, how does all this translate into your situation, your church, your community?

All this may well get you thinking: and it is just one aspect of what it would take to disciple and equip the harvest of labourers. I am really only quickly sketching it out now as an introduction to what I want to get into, which is this: if we are going to do all that God is showing us, we are going to need resources way beyond what we now have at our disposal. It is just one line on that Prophetic Timetable, but it is an important one: there is going to be a wealth transfer, to enable us to do all those things to which God is calling us.

The pride of man will be humbled and the loftiness of men will be abased; and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day, but the idols will completely vanish. Men will go into caves of the rocks and into holes of the ground before the terror of the LORD and the splendour of His majesty, when He arises to make the earth tremble’(Isa 2:17-19).

God is going to arise and make the earth tremble, shaking it to its very core. When it crumbles and falls, what is left? The kingdom which cannot be shaken (Heb 12:28), the kingdom of God which is within us (Luke 17:21).

This is what is going to take place:

Now it will come about that In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. (Isa 2:2)

The house of the Lord is the church, and the mountain is kingdom authority. It will be established over and above all those other hills and mountains, over every authority that exists in the world, and everyone will stream to it because the church will have the answers that the world is looking for. Are we really up for that? We need to be. At the moment, evil spirits are controlling those world systems: those spirits need to be dethroned, and God is going to use His people to dethrone them.

Light and darkness

This is a word that has been given over and over, here in Freedom Church and worldwide: Arise, shine; for your light has come and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you (Isa 60:1). Jesus is coming for His church, and His church is supposed to be light to the world: we are to be children of light. There is going to be a period of great light where the harvest of harvesters is going to come in. But read verses 2-3:

Behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the LORD will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

When there is nowhere else to go, when we are shining in the darkness, when the glory of God is manifested through His church, when the Presence of God is manifest, then people are going to start to come. And then, in a great period of darkness, we are to shine even brighter for that end-time harvest. That is what God is calling us to. That is what He is preparing us for.

We need to start shining. We need to start getting the glory of God in our lives; we need to start letting the glory of God out of our lives. We must manifest the presence of God in our daily lives, not just in meetings, but everywhere. God’s glory must be so evident in us that people will start coming up to us saying ‘what must I do to be saved?’ They will come to us in desperation because everything they have put their trust in has come to nothing.

Choose

What must we do? It is time to choose who we are going to serve. A Joshua generation is being raised up, and we can be part of it. It was Joshua who said to the children of Israel:

Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served, and serve the LORD. Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD (Joshua 24:14-15).

It is time to get rid of the idols, time to decide to serve the Lord. At Freedom, as a church, we have made that decision. We are going to serve the Lord. No matter what it costs and no matter what it takes; no matter how much we have to do that we might rather not do, we are going to serve the Lord. And we want other people to be part of that, because God is going to raise up churches and ministries around the world to be part of this move, to equip this end-time generation.

It is also time to choose individually: who am I going to serve? Am I going to serve the idols of my past, or am I going to surrender and serve the living God? Have I been serving myself, have I been serving the enemy, or have I been serving God? Who am I going to serve?

As for me, I am going to serve God.

He is going to pour out His light, pour out His Spirit: He is going to equip us beyond our wildest dreams. Honestly, some of the things I have seen, some of the things the other prophetic people have seen coming – that shaking of the world’s systems – it will be like nothing in history, nothing that has ever taken place before, and we have to be ready for it. But God is asking, are we ready to volunteer in the day of His power (Ps 110:3)?

He is looking for those volunteers, because the day of His power is surely coming.

Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it (Isa 2:2).

There is going to be a shaking.
I would encourage you to read and meditate on these verses:

And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven”. This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire(Heb 12:26-29).

Shaking

It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb 10:31). But we have an opportunity to surrender to that fire, to allow Him to consume all the rubbish that is in our lives so that He can prepare us. Everything that has been man-made and created in this world – every system, such as humanism, that has been created to rule over the world and to show forth man’s power and what man can do – all of those things are going to be shaken in these days, and shaken to such a degree that the whole structure is going to collapse.

We have to be ready.

The religious systems are going to be shaken and shown up as false, counterfeit and worthless: they will have no answers for people in these days. The whole worldly system will be shaken to its very core. We have seen what a little ripple in the financial system can do, with people buying up debt which couldn’t be repaid: it shook the world – and that is nothing compared to what it is going to be like when these things are not just shaken a little, but are shaken until they totally collapse.

The same is true of the education system, governmental systems, the media, arts, the entertainment business, the whole medical system. There are going to be diseases which the medical experts have no answers for, and some of them will actually be man-made created diseases which are going to be released in the world. I have seen this, and I know others have too. But when the world has no idea what to do in the face of these diseases, we are going to have the answers. That’s why we need to be equipped with healing power.

Meltdown

Where are people going to go when the world’s system is in total meltdown, in famine and collapse? When every one of those systems is shaken to its core, their root of materialism is going to be exposed. Materialism has been defined as ‘looking for material answers to meet spiritual needs’, and that is how the world’s system operates: it offers things to meet our need, and it will be exposed as a sham. All the counterfeits are going to be exposed for what they are: powerless to bring eternal salvation or lasting change. All man-made humanistic systems will be shaken; all the ‘-ologies’ and the ‘-isms’ and suchlike philosophies are going to fall. They are going to become meaningless when people have nothing and nowhere to go, when everything they have put their trust in is suddenly useless.

So where are they going to go? They are going to be looking for a people who are ready. They are going to turn to a people who have the answers, to a people who are operating in genuine supernatural power, who can offer safety and security and provision, healing and miracles. Every system that man trusts in and relies upon will fail. All the cultural systems, the whole of society as we know it, will crumble. The Word of God talks about it, and that is why God is calling us worldwide to be prepared for this to take place. That is why He is warning us, that is why He is saying now is the time to deal with the stumbling blocks, to deal with the idols, and to allow Him to start moving in us so that we are ready when it comes.

This is what it will be like:

The proud look of man will be abased and the loftiness of man will be humbled, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. For the LORD of hosts will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is proud and lofty and against everyone who is lifted up, that he may be abased. Against all the lofty mountains, against all the hills that are lifted up against the knowledge of truth (Isa 2:11-14).

‘Mountains’ are authorities, systems of authority, and they are going to come down because their pride is in man.

It was knowledge, apart from God, that the devil offered Eve in the garden of Eden, and she took up that offer. Ever since, man has been trying to do things apart from God, and set up his own systems to achieve this.

We have seen how Joseph was called from the dungeon by Pharoah to interpret his dreams, and how he used the harvest of the years of plenty to provide food for the years of famine (Genesis 41). Joseph was able to do this because he had a relationship with God, and knew how to operate in the supernatural. In our days, God intends us to operate in the same way, and intends us to do signs and wonders just as Jesus did, because of our relationship with Him.

Supernatural

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father (John 14:12).

The reason we need to be doing the greater works, and to train others up to do them too, is because as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man (Matt 24:37). We have already written a little about how it was in the days of Noah, how there were manifestations of evil in heavenly places which were then worked out on the earth. Those times are going to come again, and we need to be ready with supernatural power.

Purified

I have seen pictures and visions of fires burning in the atmosphere of the earth, the kingdom that is in darkness. The fires are purifying those realms of authority, the principalities and powers, presently occupied by the prince of the power of the air.

We are connected to the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven in the heavenly realms. We can go and meet with God: we can meet Him face to face, we can have encounters with Him in that heavenly realm. We need to be familiar with what heaven is like, if we are to bring it here on earth. We do not need to go through the atmosphere of the earth to access the heavenlies: we can access them via a direct connection, because the door is always open to us. But when we come back to the realm of the kingdom of the earth, we can go back through the kingdom in darkness to bring the light; dispel the darkness and take authority there. Some of you have already had revelation of thrones and how you need to be seated in places of authority in the heavenly realms.

God is going to cause the kingdom in darkness to be purified. I have seen fire going up into the atmosphere realms from this realm: I have seen maps of places with fire going up from them and just engulfing and purifying that realm. That realm was never intended for the enemy: it was intended for God’s people, for Adam and Eve, for us. We should occupy that realm and rule from there.

The counterfeit and the authentic

So we need to reclaim everything that has been counterfeited and lost. New Age people and occultists are operating in realms of the spirit in ways that actually put most Christians to shame: they can do things supernaturally that most Christians wouldn’t even dream about. Now I completely agree that they are doing so from totally the wrong source of power, but in fact they are just counterfeiting what God calls His people to do.

We have to be a supernatural people: we need to demonstrate true spiritual authority. Light is going to triumph over darkness, but darkness is going to be seen. There is going to be a challenge just like with the prophets of Baal, there is going to be a calling down of fire from heaven; where we challenge the forces of evil, we challenge the demonic realm – and we win. You need to know that: we win. He that is in us is greater than he that is operating in those realms and in the world.

We win, but we are going to have to be ready to win. We are going to operate in authentic supernatural power: there are going to be transportations and translations and so on; and although just now the church seems to be saying “stay away from that stuff”, in reality much of what we see in the occult is only a counterfeit of how we should truly be operating. Where a counterfeit exists, it proves there also exists an authentic original.

Yes, we “stay away” from the power source that they are tapping into, but we need to reclaim what has been counterfeited and demonstrate to the world what true spiritual power and authority looks like. We need to use the keys of the kingdom effectively, and God is going to teach us how to do so.

I know that some of you are engaging these realms already: some of you are engaging the courts of heaven; some of you are engaging these thrones; but they have a system of authority that we have to deal with and we have to break down. God is going to train us and equip us to do this, so that we can bring light; so that we can occupy those realms of authority and release that authority on earth.

In releasing that authority on earth, we release the gospel to go out, and bring in a harvest.

People from past generations have longed to see what God is doing in our day, and we have the privilege of being able to be involved in it. It is not something to be taken lightly: we must embrace who we are, we must embrace who God is calling us to be.

God is beginning to raise up a Joshua generation, who will bring in that harvest of labourers who in turn will bring in the final harvest at the end of the age. The Joshua generation will be a people of a different spirit; we will look at that in due course. The scripture that God is using to introduce this is found in Genesis 41: it is the story of Joseph.

We see in this chapter that Joseph was in the dungeon when Pharoah called for him They brought him up out of dungeon, and he shaved and put on new clothes so that he was fit to be brought into Pharoah’s presence. Pharoah sent for Joseph because he had had some dreams, and he had heard that Joseph had a supernatural ability to interpret them.

Supernatural

The church worldwide is going to be brought out of the dungeon – the dungeon of irrelevance, the dungeon of obscurity – and is going to find itself placed in the centre of the world stage. God is preparing us for that right now. It is a supernatural people who will be given this place of prominence: just as Joseph could interpret dreams and visions, they too will be a people who operate in the supernatural.

And it is a supernatural church that is required, not an institution, nor a religion, but an ekklesia which enjoys a relationship with the Living God in which He is saying ‘Come out of the dungeon’. He is saying that to some as individuals: come up out of the pit, come into the shining light, and let God use you. He is calling the church out into the light: just as it was said of Esther (Esth 4:14), we have come to the kingdom, come to royalty, for such a time as this. Our calling is to be royalty, and it will be clear that we are the sons of the King. We have a destiny in God, and we are called for such a time as this.

A time of preparation

Pharoah had two dreams which Joseph interpreted. They predicted a seven-year period of abundance followed by a seven-year period of total famine. And in the seven years of abundance, they would need to do something to prepare for the seven years of famine. In our days, God is saying that there is a period of abundance coming to the church in which a harvest will be coming in. This will be a harvest of labourers, and we need to be ready for that harvest. That harvest is what will be needed in the period of famine that will follow.

Pharoah said to His servants, “Can we find a man like this in whom there is a divine spirit?” (Gen 41:38). God wants us to know His Spirit is in us, that we are a habitation of God, of His Presence and power; that His kingdom is within us, manifesting through us. That is what it is going to take, around the world, to be prepared for this harvest.

As we read on, we see what Joseph did: he gathered 20% of all the food that was harvested in the years of abundance, and placed this food in cities: in every city he gathered the food from its own surrounding fields. I have listened to lots of prophetic words and voices about this recently and I believe that what God is saying is that we will see 20% of the population of the planet gathered as the first stage of the harvest: 20% of the people around the cities of refuge that God is establishing around the world are going to come in and be saved.

That adds up to quite a lot of people – about a billion or so – which is why we are going to need a much bigger building, in fact we are going to need this whole site that we have marked out, this whole campus that we have been believing for. There are going to be plenty of others like us too, in other places. A harvest, a billion people to be trained up as labourers in the even bigger harvest to come. Others have seen this billion people: some believe that it is the whole of the end time harvest, but I cannot believe God will be satisfied unless there are at least far more people saved than not.

Cities Of Refuge

When the famine came, as predicted in Pharoah’s dream, where did all the people of the earth go to get what they needed? They came to Egypt, they came to Joseph: there was no grain anywhere else. The whole world was in the grip of famine. And this is what is going to happen when we are ready, when the harvest of labourers is gathered into the cities of refuge. Those cities of refuge are the apostolic resource centres, regional centres which God is raising up around the world. They will have relationship with each other and responsibility for the people around them in their own area, to draw in that 20%.

I am not saying that is going to be just one church: it will be God’s people coming together in an area, in unity, in order to release this. So we need to be ready, to be prepared for that harvest of harvesters to come in. That is what God is doing with us here: He is calling us to be an equipping centre, to help train up all those people.

Prodigals return

Prodigals are going to return: that is one of the first signs of this, that we see the prodigals start to come back, people who have been hurt, disappointed, disillusioned, and who have walked away from God as a result. Angels are going to go out and draw them back in (in all this we are going to be working alongside angelic reapers). Family members, our children, and others, are going to be coming back.

We need to be ready for them, to train them and equip them in the supernatural, to do the works of Jesus and the greater works too: nothing else is going to be enough. All the nature miracles, walking on water, stilling storms, supernaturally multiplying resources, signs and wonders: all the things Jesus did, God intends us to be doing. And it is for all of us, not just for specialists, it is for every single individual Christian to be doing the works of Jesus. “Those who believe will do the works that I do” (John 14:12). That is what Jesus said: all we have to do is believe.

I believe that God is challenging us to surrender. And especially if you have been hardening your heart when you have seen God at work in revival, resisting what He is doing because things are not as you expected, this is an opportunity for you to surrender totally to Him, and allow Him to do what He needs to do.

All of us, everything

Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19).

If we are willing to turn away from ourselves and surrender to Him, He will refresh us with His very Presence. That is a promise: the question is, are we willing, or do we still want to do it our own way? Do we still want to do it according to our own thinking or are we willing to surrender that and allow God to do it however He chooses? Are we willing to give Him everything? He wants our heart; He wants our mind; He wants it all. He is not satisfied with what we are giving Him: all of us need to surrender everything.

Let us abandon ourselves to Him: be that living sacrifice we looked at last time, and let it all go. Let go of our past and let Him heal it and restore it. He will restore our soul if we are willing to sit in green pastures by quiet waters and look at His face. See His eyes, looking at us, loving us. Seeing our pain and our hurt, and bringing healing because He loves us. He went to the cross and took every sickness, every pain, every disease, every sorrow; He took every sin we have committed or ever will, every sin that has been committed against us, and He died for us. And He was resurrected and is alive to enforce the victory of the cross in our lives – if we will allow Him to do it.

The question is, will we let it go? We need to receive our true identity as sons of God. The only way we receive it is letting go of our old identity, letting go of our old way of doing it, our old strongholds and mindsets, to embrace our destiny. Every one of us has a destiny in God, God wants us to embrace it.

Today

And today, I really believe, is the time when we need to make a decision in our hearts. Some of us have been lukewarm, resistant, doing as little as we have thought we could get away with. If we have been thinking that would be OK, we need to recognise that is not enough anymore. It never was. It is not enough to play around with this: God wants our whole life: everything. And when we give Him our whole life, we receive His abundant life in return; we get everything we ever desired or wanted, but has been blocked by our stubbornness, because of the flesh and the strongholds that get in the way. Today is the time when we can surrender.

Can we take a minute to be quiet, close our eyes, and be honest before God about where we are with Him right now? If we are struggling, to surrender that struggle. If we know there are things we have not handed over to Him, to hand them over now. Just count the cost of what doing things our own way might be for us, if we miss what God is doing right now. Consider where it will lead us and where it will take us, compared to what will happen if we surrender our life to God, compared to our destiny in God, in the Holy Spirit, in the future Kingdom of God.

Selah

Please, pause for a minute to do that, and only continue reading this post when you are done.

Prayer of surrender

Now I am inviting you to pray with me if you are willing to surrender the whole of your life. Whether you have prayed a prayer of surrender like this before, or whether this is the first time, He wants to give you so much more than you can imagine or think, but He cannot if you are not surrendering everything to Him. Surrender to Him right now. Forget what anyone else is doing around you, just get in the presence of God.

Father,
I pray that You will receive the living sacrifice
That I am presenting before You right now.
That You will receive it into Your hand,
Receive my life, receive my soul,
My mind, my heart, my will, my emotions, my choice.
Receive me as a living sacrifice,
Heal, restore, make whole,
Empower, envision, equip;
Draw me into an intimate relationship with You, Father.

As I surrender to You,
Come, meet with me at that point of surrender.
As I surrender my life, give me Your abundant life;
As I surrender my hurts and pains, bring healing and restoration;
As I surrender my past, give me revelation of my future.
Open up the eyes of my heart to see, to hear, to feel and to know
Who I am as Your son.
Release my true identity as Your son,
Called to the kingdom for such a time as this.
Prepare my body with fragrant oils and fragrant perfume
To come into the presence of the King.

I come into the presence of the King right now
As a living sacrifice,
To present it before You in the heavenly realms
So that I can take my seat,
Seated with Christ in authority and power in the heavenly realms;
To manifest Your kingdom
On earth, as it is in heaven, through my life,
Manifesting the light of Your glory.
Take me, Lord God,
Take my heart, melt it with Your love.

With Your eyes of love
You are looking into people’s hearts, saying,
“Give Me your heart,
Stop being stubborn,
Stop resisting;
Surrender,
Be a living sacrifice.
I have so much to give you,
So much more than you can imagine or think.
Today, just surrender to me
And allow me to do what I want to do in your life.
Allow me to direct your life
In the way it should go,
To empower you and envision you;
Embrace your destiny.”

I pray, Holy Spirit, touch our lives today.
As we have turned away from our own way
And we have repented and turned to You,
Let times of refreshing come from Your very Presence.
Let Your Presence rest on us;
Open up the realms of heaven
As you invite us into the throne room
To meet the King.

God wants to give you new things: He wants you to be invested with new clothes, new robes of righteousness and kingly authority. He wants to put a ring of authority on your finger. He wants to release power and anointing upon you. You are called to the kingdom for such a time as this.

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The Restoration of All Things 2 – Going Deeper June 18-21 2020

From June 18th-21st 2020, Nancy Coen, Lindy Strong and Justin Paul Abraham will be joining Mike Parsons to present The Restoration of All Things 2 – Going Deeper live online.

Note: this event has been rearranged as online only due to restrictions related to by Covid-19.

There are two levels of participation:

Either the full Enhanced Virtual Conference Experience, allowing you to take part live in the discussion and question and answer sessions scheduled throughout the event. The cost is £150 GBP (£200 for couples).

Or a conventional live stream option, which is for you if you only wish to watch and do not intend to take an active part in the discussions. The cost is £100 GBP (£150 for couples).

We’re delighted that all four speakers from last year’s event will again be joining us!

God is restoring all things according to His original intent and purpose.

What does that mean for you and me?

What does it mean for the church?

What does it mean for the world, for the cosmos, for the unseen realm?

Is there any thing, any system or any being that God cannot or will not restore?

*typically less than $95 USD[subject to currency exchange rate variations. Correct as of January 17th 2021].

Expanding Our Reality

“We use the creative power of our consciousness to create reality, most of us unintentionally! If you want things to be different, you have to make intentional choices…”
Mike Parsons, Expanding Our Reality Intensive

Free to watch on our website: the first session of Expanding our Reality, our final Sons Arise! event of 2018.freedomarc.org/reality

Releasing Toxic Emotions – get the recordings

Toxic emotions are often the source of emotional pain, relational difficulties, and physical illness. By releasing toxic emotions you will come into a place of rest for your soul and health for your body.

The Restoration of All Things

25 sessions, 4 renowned speakers, 1 unique event!

Over 35 hours of video for £80!*

Stream or download all the recordings of The Restoration of All Things intensive with Nancy Coen, Justin Paul Abraham, Lindy Strong and Mike Parsons.

*typically equivalent to around $100 USD[subject to currency exchange rate variations. Correct as of August 7th 2019].

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